Peper v. State, No. 88-177

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Wyoming
• Writing for the Court: Before CARDINE; CARDINE
• Citation: 768 P.2d 26
• Decision Date: 26 January 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-177
• Parties: Terry PEPER, Appellant (Defendant), v. The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff).

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768 P.2d 26 Terry PEPER, Appellant (Defendant),
v.
The STATE of Wyoming, Appellee (Plaintiff). No. 88-177. Supreme Court of Wyoming. Jan. 26, 1989.

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Leonard D. Munker, State Public Defender, and Michael J. French, Public Defender Program, for appellant.

Joseph B. Meyer, Atty. Gen., John W. Renneisen, Deputy Atty. Gen., Karen A. Byrne, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., and Paul S. Rehurek, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellee.

Before CARDINE, C.J., and THOMAS, URBIGKIT, MACY and GOLDEN, JJ.

CARDINE, Chief Justice.

Appellant, Terry Peper, pled guilty to the crime of escape from official detention. He appeals, challenging the district court's acceptance of the plea, denial of his motion to withdraw the plea, and the sentence imposed, claiming an abuse of discretion.

We affirm.

On November 1, 1984, after pleading guilty to forgery, appellant was sentenced to a term of 20 to 40 months in the Wyoming State Penitentiary. The court suspended all but 30 days of the sentence and placed him on probation for 40 months. Over the next two years, repeated violations of the conditions of appellant's probation resulted in three separate instances of revocation and subsequent reinstatement of that probation. Upon his fourth violation, the court, attempting to alter this pattern, ordered appellant to participate in the residential community corrections program offered by Community Alternatives of Greybull, Inc. in Greybull, Wyoming.

On August 8, 1987, appellant left the center without the permission of authorities in charge, stole a car, and fled to California where he was apprehended and returned to Wyoming. At his arraignment, appellant entered a plea of not guilty to the charge of escape from official detention. The State later charged him with the unauthorized use of a motor vehicle. Thereafter, pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, appellant changed his plea to guilty on the escape charge. The district court sentenced appellant to a term of two to four years, to be served concurrently with the time remaining on his forgery sentence.

Appellant contends that his guilty plea must be vacated because the court failed to adequately inform him of the nature of the charged offense and to determine a factual basis for his plea, as required by Rule 15(c)(1) and (f), W.R.Cr.P. ¹ Appellant reasons that, since the sentencing court ordered him to submit to the supervision of the community correctional facility as a condition of his probation, he was not in official detention as that term is defined by statute. Therefore, he argues, his act of leaving the facility was not escape from detention. He contends that the district court failed to make him aware of a different interpretation before accepting his guilty plea, and that amounted to a failure to adequately inform him of the nature of the charge against him and find a factual basis for his plea. He concludes that without a factual basis for his plea, the district court erred when it denied his motion to withdraw that plea.

Appellant's argument concerning the validity of his plea is based on an incorrect construction of the statute under

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which he was charged. That statute, W.S. 6-5-206, provides that "[a] person commits a crime if he escapes from official detention." W.S. 6-5-201(a)(ii) defines "official detention" as

"arrest, detention in a facility for custody of persons under charge or conviction of crime or alleged or found to be delinquent, detention for extradition or deportation, or detention in any manner and in any place for law enforcement purposes. 'Official detention' does not include supervision on probation or parole or constraint incidental to release on bail." (emphasis added)

Appellant's argument ignores the provisions of Wyoming's Adult Community Corrections Act, W.S. 7-18-101, et seq., effective May 23, 1985. The legislature intended the act to encourage development of community correctional programs which could aid in reintegrating low-risk adult felons into society. 1985 Wyo.Sess.Laws, ch. 219, § 2. Accordingly, a comprehensive review of the language of the act demonstrates that the legislature intended these programs to provide a rehabilitative, supervisory control over the participants, different in kind from both the relative freedom of probation and the highly restrictive constraints associated with detention in the state penitentiary. We perceive a legislative intent to provide a "halfway house" between prison and probation. W.S. 7-18-108 provides that "the sentencing court may, as a condition of probation, order that the offender participate in a residential or nonresidential community correctional program during all or any part of his term of probation." (emphasis added) Although participation in these...